The fiction writer is the ombudsman who argues our humble, dubious case in the halls of eternal record. - John Updike

Women, fire in their crotch, won't burn out, begin by fighting off pricks, end by going wild hunting for one that still works.

As if pity is, as he has been taught, not a helpless outcry but a powerful tide that could redeem the world...

No soul or locale is too humble to be the site of entertaining
and instructive fiction. Indeed, all other things being equal, the
rich and glamorous are less fertile ground than the poor and
plain, and the dusty corners of the world more interesting than
its glittering, already sufficiently publicized centers.